


A Howlin’ Good Time

by pixiealtaira



Series: Kurtoberfest 2016 [3]
Category: Glee
Genre: Friendship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-15
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:41:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23664058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pixiealtaira/pseuds/pixiealtaira
Summary: Prompt 3: WerewolvesFun at the Zoo.
Series: Kurtoberfest 2016 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1694098
Comments: 3
Kudos: 17





	A Howlin’ Good Time

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah...not really werewolves. I find werewolves hard to write. I'm not sure who I blame.

Kurt had wanted to go to the zoo since he moved to New York.

He did not want to go to the zoo with Rachel. She lectured about wildlife reserves which she saw on television in Africa and how the poor dear animals there were trapped in retched lives of exploitive entertainment. Going to the zoo with Rachel sounded like pure torture. 

The thought of going to the zoo with Santana was almost as bad. She would spend the whole trip comparing him in the worst possibly ways to the zoo’s denizens.

He missed his chance with Adam. He’d screwed that relationship up before even ever giving it a chance and it still hurt just thinking about it.

Blaine wouldn’t go with him once he got to town, either. They’d already had that discussion. Blaine found zoos juvenile and boring, and even if the zoo had been in Disney World or San Diego or any other world renowned zoo, it would still be lame and dull.

Since they’d also already had the whole “seeing the city without me’ discussion (in which Kurt learned that he couldn’t see any landmark or other item on Kurt’s wish list without Blaine because wasn’t that the point of living in the city together? Doing any memory making moment so they would always be linked and share them?), Kurt was also well aware that Blaine wasn’t into nearly half the things he was and wouldn’t want to do many things with Kurt. Kurt wasn’t supposed to take such time away from Blaine when he was near to do things on his own (or heaven forbid with someone else) so Kurt decided to get as many of his ‘wish’ items done before Blaine came to New York as he could.

He’d gone to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Adam, and to visit Winnie-The-Pooh. He’d gone to the opera and the ballet with Dani, as well as a hockey game and roller derby (The last two were not really on his list, but they were interesting…there were many more faces into the Plexiglas ring at the hockey game Dani dragged him to than at the high school one his dad once made him go to.). He took Santana with him to the off-Broadway show he chose to see, as well as to the Broadway show he chose.

And Elliot was his chosen partner for his excursion to the garment district and for a walking tour of Madison Avenue that pointed out where the most well-known agencies used to be. He’d also been the one chosen to go to Ellis Island, the Natural History Museum and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. 

So, when Kurt formed his list of who to make go to the zoo with him, it wasn’t surprising Elliot ended up his first choice. Luckily, Elliot had no problem with that choice.

It was a great day. They started off following along the map they were handed at the gate and Elliot was just as willing to read everything posted about the exhibits as Kurt was, so no one fussed he was taking too long. They talked favorite animals, wishes for pets as kids, and amusement parks they had visited and wished they could visit. They visited gift shops as they came by them.

It was a pretty normal day and a huge blast. Kurt was certain he was having a better time with Elliot than he’d ever have had with Blaine, which gave him a moment of pause when he first thought it. They goofed off together, and Kurt didn’t constantly feel as if he had to live up to some image that wasn’t really him, some image that didn’t allow him to be free.

Probably no instance was a better example of that than when the hit the wolf exhibit.

‘When I was little,” Elliot said. “We came here on a trip. I had a bunch of cousins with me and one of them lived near a zoo where the kids on field trips would howl at the wolves and sometimes the wolves would howl back. He dared us to do that here, and if the wolves howled he’d buy us small stuffed animals and if they didn’t we all had to buy him souvenirs of New York. He was certain he was going to win, for several reasons, but mainly because other than him, all of us were city kids and he was sure we didn’t know how to howl right. So, there we were, eleven kids of all sorts of ages…from little Buttercup who was just about two…”

“Buttercup?” Kurt asked.

“Oh God, yes, it is her actual name. Buttercup Biloxi. She goes by BB now and no one can blame her, even though it drives my grandmother nuts. Anyway, from Buttercup to Calvin, the one who dared us to howl who was 15 at the time, we stood there howling at the fence…except for one. We got the wolves attention, but they hadn’t started howling, so Cal was making all sorts of remarks about how he was going to win. Then Carly, she was about 6 at the time, just a year younger than I was, tilted her head and looked at one of the wolves. That wolf looked right back at her. Then Carly opened her mouth and howled. It was eerie, she sounded so real. And the rest of the wolves howled right back. First the one that had been looking at her and then one by one the rest joined in.”

“Really?” Kurt asked.

Elliot nodded. “Cal was so mad, he tried to refuse to follow through with the deal but his mom made him. I still have my stuffed animal. I picked a small wolf. His mom made him buy Carly a larger wolf. She carried it everywhere with her for years and years.”

Kurt looked at the wolves in the enclosure. Although they were ignoring the people looking at them for the most part, they didn’t seem to ignore them as much as some of the other animals did. Several seemed to watch the people as much as the people watched them.

“I wonder if they still howl back?” Kurt asked.

Elliot laughed. Kurt loved when Elliot laughed. It always made him smile. “Do you want to try?” Elliot asked.

Kurt looked around at the other people near them. There was a family with several rowdy boys whose mother kept having to run after one or another, and whose dad was holding a sleeping toddler with a baby strapped to his back already and couldn’t help with the chasing much. There was a mom with a very small kid in a stroller. Her hair was spiked and pink and Kurt thought maybe she wouldn’t mind much.

“Sure.” Kurt said.

Elliot went first and howled. Kurt watched as several wolves turned their head their way. Kurt watched Elliot tilt his head back again. He shrugged his shoulders and thought back to the sound he heard the one year his dad forced him to sleep a-way summer camp. Kurt opened his mouth and let forth his howl, trying to copy the sound that he had been certain was a wolf.

The bigger dark grey wolf walked toward the fence and sat, looking at the two men. The little boys had caught onto the idea and started to howl as well. Kurt and Elliot laughed and started to howl again, less now about the wolves and more for the little boys who had gathered closer to their mom and were entertained enough with howling for her get a good grasp on them again. The mother nodded her thanks, after securing two into the wagon she was pulling and grabbing hold firmly the hand of the third, still howling child.

Then the bigger grey wolf that was watching them stood up and then tilted his head to the sky and howled. Other wolves around the enclosure joined in. The little boys howled even louder, trying to match the wolves and not Kurt and Elliot. Kurt and Elliot both howled with the group, matching their voices to the wolves the best they could as well.

It didn’t last long, just a three rounds of howling. Then the wolves stopped and went back to doing whatever wolves do when they are in the zoo. The boys waved and were carted off to the next exhibit and the other mother took her tot off the other direction.

The bigger grey wolf was sitting looking at them again.

“Thank you,” Kurt told the wolf.

“That was awesome and I think it was a huge help for that poor lady. Thank you.” Elliot added.

The wolf seemed to bob its head and then stood and wandered off.

“Do you think it understood us?” Kurt asked.

Elliot shrugged. “I know a lot of dogs understand more than most people give them credit for, why not wolves?”

They walked towards the next exhibit, talking about animal experiences. They spent most the rest of the afternoon smiling and laughing.

As they were getting ready to head into the final gift shop before leaving the zoo, Kurt chuckled to himself, loud enough for Elliot to catch.

“What’s so funny?” Elliot asked.

“I can’t believe I howled at wolves in public.” Kurt replied.

“And they howled back.”

“Elliot, I howled at wolves in public. And it felt good and I didn’t care who saw. At the moment, I don’t even care if Rachel or Santana find out, it felt that good. I think that is the wildest thing I’ve done since…well…probably the corset in school back at the start of 10th grade, which I got sent home for.”

“Tattoo?” Elliot asked.

“Rachel got one too, I know she says she didn’t but when I went back and asked to have mine fixed the tattoo artist asked about her. Besides, a tattoo was always in the plan. I just had planned on doing tattoos like my dad did his.”

“Your dad? How does he do his?”

“My dad got his to memorialize the joyous times. He said the sad times often stick with you to haunt you when you are low again, but the joy is often fleeting. So he got his tattoos to remember when he was full of joy, as a reminder when the sorrow was winning.”

“Oh, I like that.”

Kurt nodded. “There is a lizard on his side. When he first met my mom, they were at party and the guy who dragged my mom to it was a friend of hers who called her lizard. She called him fishface, so….I suppose it wasn’t too bad. And the spot is where my mom first touched him in a flirtatious way. She tickled him. Then on his shoulder where my head first laid he has blue music notes. Apparently when I cried it was rather musical and my mother told him I was their heart’s song come to life. He has a car tattooed on his chest that he got when he bought into the shop. I wanted tattoos like that. I mean I like mine, but it wasn’t as wild as howling as wolves.”

Elliot draped his arm around Kurt’s shoulders.

“Well, then, we’ll just have to think of more wild and crazy things for you to do.”

Kurt went home with a large, very soft and very huggable stuffed wolf.

The next day Elliot brought over a set list including Lil’ Red Riding Hood. Rachel yelled at Kurt in the midst of her yelling at Elliot about how he was ruining the whole band…which she wasn’t even a member of…for laughing at her and asking what other songs they were singing instead of telling Elliot no. Elliot winked and Kurt’s insides felt just as thrilled as when he howled at the wolves. As the arguing raged about him, Kurt considered he might have some thinking and soul searching to do.


End file.
